1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system for providing redundant power to critical loads.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The use of an uninterruptible power system (UPS) to provide power to a critical load is well known. Known uninterruptible power systems include on-line UPS's and off-line UPS's. On-line UPS's provide conditioned AC power as well as back-up AC power upon interruption of a primary source of AC power. Off-line UPS's typically do not provide conditioning of input AC power, but do provide back-up AC power upon interruption of the primary AC power source. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of one type of on-line UPS. Other on-line UPS's are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,652, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,768, each of which is incorporated herein by reference. On-line UPS's of the type described in the referenced patents are available from American Power Conversion Corporation, West Kingston, R.I. under the trade names Symmetra and Silicon. The UPS 10A of FIG. 1 includes an input circuit breaker/filter 12, a rectifier 14, a control switch 15, a controller 16, a battery 18, an inverter 20, an isolation transformer 22, and a bypass switch 23. The UPS also includes an input 24 for coupling to an AC power source 1, and an output 26 for coupling to a load.
The UPS 10A operates as follows. The circuit breaker/filter 12 receives input AC power from the AC power source 1 through the input 24, filters the input AC power and provides filtered AC power to the rectifier 14. The rectifier rectifies the input voltage. The control switch 15 receives the rectified power and also receives DC power from the battery 18. The controller 16 determines whether the power available from the rectifier is within predetermined tolerances, and if so, controls the control switch to provide the power from the rectifier to the inverter 20. If the power from the rectifier is not within the predetermined tolerances, which may occur because of “brown out” or “black out” conditions, or due to power surges, then the controller controls the control switch to provide the DC power from the battery to the inverter 20.
The inverter 20 of the UPS 10A receives DC power and converts the DC power to AC power and regulates the AC power to predetermined specifications. The inverter 20 provides the regulated AC power to the isolation transformer 22. The isolation transformer is used to increase or decrease the voltage of the AC power from the inverter and to provide isolation between a load and the UPS. The isolation transformer is typically an optional device, the use of which is typically dependent on UPS output power specifications. Depending on the capacity of the battery and the power requirements of the load, the UPS 10A can provide power to the load during brief power source dropouts or for extended power outages. The bypass switch 23 is used to provide a bypass of UPS circuitry to provide the input power directly to the output 26. The bypass switch may be controlled by the controller 16 to provide bypass of the UPS circuitry upon a failure condition of the UPS.
To provide further power redundancy, it is known to use a second power source to supply power to a bypass switch of a UPS from a second source of AC power. Systems of this type are often referred to as dual mains systems. FIG. 2 shows a dual mains UPS 10B that is similar to UPS 10A except that it includes a second input 25 to couple to a second power source 2, and UPS 10B includes a bypass switch 23 that selectively couples the second input directly to the output 26 of the UPS 10B. In dual mains systems, typically, a utility power source is coupled to the first power input 24 of the system and a backup power source, such as a generator is coupled to the second power input 25 of the system. Upon failure of the utility power source, the power system is able to continue to provide power to a load using the battery mode of operation of the UPS, while the generator is powered on and brought to full output voltage. Once the generator is on line, the power system can continue to provide output power in a bypass mode for an extended period of time from the generator.
Dual mains systems may also be used with both power inputs coupled to the same source of input power, but through separate fuses and/or circuit breakers. For many types of power failures, the power will be lost at both input 24 and input 25, but situations may exist, such as a blown fuse or circuit breaker, where power is lost at only input 24, and the bypass switch 23 can be used to continue to provide output power to a load.